Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today, at the start of the Government meeting [translated from Hebrew]:

“Over the past month, we have been witnessing ridiculous claims regarding the relationship between the United States and Israel. When I was in Washington, it was said there that I control the American administration, that I dictate its security policy to it. Now, the opposite is being claimed – the American administration controls me and dictates Israel’s security policy.

Neither of these is true. Israel is an independent country; the United States is an independent country. The relations between us are relations between partners, and this partnership, which has reached an all-time high, was also expressed in the operational cooperation in the second part of Operation Rising Lion.

It is also expressed, and was expressed just recently, in the release of all the living hostages from Gaza, and of course in the effort to return all the fallen, and also in other areas in which we are changing the face of the Middle East together.

But I want to make one thing crystal clear: Our security policy is in our own hands. We are not prepared to tolerate attacks against us. We respond according to our own judgment against attacks, as we saw in Lebanon and most recently in Gaza. We dropped 150 tons on Hamas and the terrorist elements after the attack on our two soldiers. And of course, we also thwart dangers as they are being formed, before they are carried out, as we did just yesterday in the Gaza Strip.

We do not seek anyone’s approval for this. We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate. This is, of course, acceptable to the United States as well, as its most senior representatives have expressed in recent days.

Israel is an independent state. We will defend ourselves with our own forces, and we will continue to control our destiny.”